Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods of handling different versions of data for planning applications, and in particular to tracking the evolution of data versions and allowing comparison between different data versions.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Data stored in data warehouses have historically been used for reporting purposes. Such data reporting applications are backward-looking, in that there exists a single truth (hereafter “actual data” or “actuals”), corresponding to what actually occurred in the past.
Increasingly however, data stored in data warehouses are also being utilized for forecasting or planning purposes. Such data planning applications are forward-looking, in that there exist a number of different possible options (hereafter “plan data”) based on unmade decisions or other as-yet undetermined influencing factors.
Such undetermined influencing factors can result in deviation from a pure extrapolation from the past, but still are to a large extent related to the past data. It is thus desirable for planning applications to be able to extend reporting data, such that different options can be reflected in a consistent manner.
Accordingly, the present disclosure addresses these and other issues with methods and systems of handling different versions of data for planning applications.